It took several months, but I was finally able to make the case that Christian Wiman was a voice we needed to put on the air after seeing the strong response to his conversation with Bill Moyers on PBS. He was good; he also seemed nervous, and I wondered if that didn’t have to do with being on television being asked questions by one of America’s best interviewers.

And that’s where the beauty of radio comes in. Rather than setting up a face-to-face interview, we set up an ISDN line — an extremely high-quality telephone line that captures the intimate aspects of a person’s voice — with Krista in a studio in St. Paul, Minnesota and Wiman in a studio in Chicago, Illinois. Methinks you’ll hear a somewhat different Christian Wiman that will add to the sum of your life.

That said, I’m not too wild about the title of this show though: “Remembering God.” It doesn’t do the interview justice or capture what’s relatable for many listeners out there: being raised in a faith rooted in family and culture, losing that devotion and belief in a greater Being, and returning to some type of belief that perhaps is more mature but less intense.

If you get a chance, take a listen and tell me what you might have titled it. There’s no doubt we will rebroadcast this show, and I’d be more than glad to shepherd your suggestions so we can make way for a better title!

Reflections

"Holding on for dear life"?, this was a great interview, you folks may want to talk with David Miller retired Syracuse U. prof. one time colleague of Huston Smith and Jo Campbell on his work with Stanley R. Hopper on theopoetics:http://www.sarcc.org/Hopper.ht...

It would be interesting were someone to find and post the two police reports--on Dr. Miller's near-fatal [1981?] shooting and John Miller's 1985ish? homicide/manslaughter, outside the bar, recounted in 'The Limit' and disussed during today's OB.

Extra credit for police report #3--pertaining to the [1950ish?] murder/suicide in which grandpa Fred shot Wiman's grandmother in the back, positioned himself alongside his late wife & discharged the weapon upon himself. The tale has an apocryphal sound to me, though I grant I could be wrong...

Krista. thank you so much for your program. nearly every one is critically important to me.

as for your query, if i might be so bold as to suggest a re-title i think something capturing his comment in response to the poem which he rejected for being strongly misleading about death. similarly, the comment he made regarding our inability to wrap our minds around ourselves dying. i thought it was so powerful--an intensely naked and painfully informed revelation.

This was one of my favorite broadcasts of 2012. It was so personal, profound and insightful about the human faith journey that I listened to it twice and read transcript. I didn't love/hate the title, but if re-naming it for re-broadcast means that more people listen to this wonderful interview, do it!

Although I too am a recovering Southern Baptist (who found a way back after 20 years away), the aspect of the show that resonated most for me was not Wiman's return to church so much as his reflections on how he felt about poetry and how what he needed from it changed as he experienced nearness to death. When he was speaking of wanting concrete poetry that evoked the real world in all its materiality, I found myself thinking of Mary Oliver's poetry, and reflecting that that is one of the things I like about it: that it draws me out of my cognitive stew back into the present moment in the physical world and all its beauty ... and pain.

Although I'm also in recovery from a Southern Baptist childhood, it was not Wiman's departure from and return to church that resonated most for me in this interview; rather, it was Wiman's reflections about how his feelings about poetry changed as he faced the nearness of death. As he spoke of his need for concrete poetry that evoked the material world, I found myself thinking of Mary Oliver's work, and how I value it for that very reason: that its very materiality pulls me out of my cognitive stew and back into the real and present moment, in all its beauty ... and pain.

I don't have a suggestion yet for a replacement title, but have been thinking along the lines of something incorporating pentimento. This is the word that first came to my mind when I listened again to the Wiman interview. I loved this episode, and it was one of the few that I have felt compelled to replay recently and research beyond the program.

When you invited suggestions on a new title I re-listened to the podcast "Remembering God” and:---remembered the ambivalence of the my fundamentalist background.---the distance I experienced between the beautiful and meaningful ‘words’ and the observed behavior of Christians (myself included). ---the inability of a community to meet the needs of a child (myself) with a dead father.I’m finding some humor in my search for a new title for ‘Remembering God ‘with the guest Christian Wiman (pronounced Christian Why Man).

I have no problem at all with the title" Remembering God". I watched Christian Wiman conversation with Bill Moyers first few months ago and was deeply moved by it .And now I have listened to his conversation with Krista Tippett. The closeness and intimacy of this sharing is deeply felt within the heart. We indeed need to be reminded that poetry can be also experienced as going to church or any other place of worship. A place of communion in a true sense.